John Robinson (pastor)

John Robinson (1576-1625) was an early leader of the English Separatists and the pastor of the Pilgrims before they left on the Mayflower.

Biography
John Robinson was born in Sturton-Le-Steeple, Nottinghamshire, England in 1576, and he became a fellow of Corpus Christi College at the University of Cambridge in 1598 and an ordained priest of the Church of England. During his years at Cambridge, a center of Puritanism, Robinson gradually accepted its principles, and sought to "purify" the Church of its Catholic influences. Queen Elizabeth I of England was tolerant towards the Puritans, but her successor, King James I of England, decided to enforce religious conformity after taking the throne in 1603. He made it illegal for Separatists to hold their own services, and Robinson was forced to conduct services in secret. In 1607, his Scrooby congregation decided to leave for the Netherlands, and Robinson helped many Separatists in fleeing the country. He settled in Leiden in the Netherlands, and he defended Calvinism in several debates while studying at Leiden. Robinson stayed behind in the Netherlands with a remnant of the Separatists as the majority of them went on to the Americas, and he died in 1625.